<p>Love Isabel Allende, but House of the Spirits is a little dense. However, she also wrote a YA novel. City of the Beasts is a great teen-centric novel set in the Amazon.</p>
<p>Strongly second Perseopolis and Part-time Indian. Both have some sex/substance abuse/language - so if that bothers you I would look closely.</p>
<p>For China, I love Amy Tan (the Kitchen Gods Wife) or Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. </p>
<p>My favorite book of all time is a travel memoir called “Stranger in the Forest:On foot across Borneo” story of a guy (Eric Hansen) who decided to walk across the jungle, all the different native groups he interacted with, the impact of industrialization and missionaries on the native cultures, so entertaining and interesting! Short book, pretty easy read.</p>
<p>Another book for a kid who may be more into science than novels is One River by Wade Davis - both the story of the rubber plantations of the Amazon in the early 20th century and “ethnobotanists” doing cultural and pharmacological botany exploration in South America. Long book, but fascinating!</p>
<p>Wade Davis is a great writer.
Another science memoir is by Robert Sapolsky, A, Primates Memoir, about his 21 years in Kenya studying baboons.
It is pee your pants funny.
:D</p>
<p>I haven’t read this yet, I started it, but I am really bad about waiting until bed to start reading, so it really has to suck me in before I fall asleep, however, A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki, sounds very intriguing.
<p>This isn’t a suggestion of certain book just an idea. Every time we visit a state or national park we look at the books in the park store. There is usually at least one book about the area from long ago. Normally the books are a bunch of short stores about different people with letters and some pictures. It gives you a look at what was going on at the period of time. For example my kids have read ones about Key West, The U.P and Cripple Creek in Colorado to name a few. Maybe you could visit a park somewhere close and pick out a book from there?</p>
<p>I’m finding some good ideas too. Will compile and post once her finals are over. Just found a bunch of graphic travelogues. Wow. Have started to poke around for feature movies and documentaries that fit the around the world theme. It’s going to hard to whittle down the list. What’s that T-shirt say? “So many books; So little time.”? Big thanks! </p>
<p>I read Part Time Indian- I don’t know if I loved it but I can see why so many people do. </p>
<p>Nonfiction, but I liked The Long Way Home by Ishmael Beah. That guy had a h*llish (sorry, I don’t know what censorship’s like around here) life disturbingly recently.</p>
<p>I’m assuming that the Little House books were already read and loved…</p>
<p>This is probably too low of a reading level (I don’t know- it’s been a while since I read them) but Pam Munoz Ryan had some great books about Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, etc. Thinking back, I’d probably put them more on a middle-school level, actually.</p>
<p>I Am Malala is a summer reading program requirement for sophomore honors English at our high school this year. I loved it.</p>
<p>I did read Cutting For Stone; for me, it started out a bit slow - I felt he spent too much space on details that didn’t really add any dimension to the story for me. But it definitely picked up by mid-point, and I was sad when it was over (because I wanted the story to continue). </p>
<p>I’ve read a number of non-fiction books lately about the genocide in Rwanda and Burundi that I would highly recommend, but they might be too intense for some people.</p>
<p>I’m not beyond using some children’s books to set a scene for the countries/cultures on her list. I also recall a photo essay book highlighting the lives of an array of teen girls across the globe (individual girls were featured telling about their lives and dreams). And another photo book on what kids own in different living circumstances throughout the world. Can’t remember the titles though! </p>
<p>My DD skipped Little House and that broke my heart. Just looked at the collection that remains on her bookshelf last night. Wondered if she’d bother with them now. Maybe start with one of the “older Laura” books? </p>
<p>Yes! That was it: Material World: A Global Family Portrait. I think I might have been cross-fertilizing it in my brain with a photo exhibition (?) on the toys of children across the world (stunning). Maybe saw that one posted on FB? </p>
<p>One the the mentions above ^ made me try to remember if The Places in Between is teen-friendly. I definitely agreed with its POV, but it’s about 10 years old and the details have fogged up on me. It’s a travel narrative by Scottish author Rory Stewart about his solo walk across north-central Afghanistan in 2002 (Wiki blurb). </p>
<p>We do the audio books in the car. Catch-22 now. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man coming up. Hmmm. Might use Portrait as an “Ireland” book. </p>
<p>I’m thinking Khaled Hosseini might be best for an older teen, maybe two or three years from now. I (old lady) even got queasy with Kite & Suns. </p>
<p>Still looking for a Russia/Soviet book. (My own favorite is The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.) Haven’t read much of that world except some of the Russian novels/drama classics. Maybe there aren’t a lot of YA-friendly novels that touch that or other Slavic regions? Might the novel Everything Is Illuminated work (I’ve only seen the film)? However, she already has a solid foundation in Europe-centered Holocaust/WW II lit. BTW, the suggestions above ^ for Middle-East tales/lit would be completely new to her. </p>
<p>I loathed My Antonia in 9th grade English and never had any temptation to try O pioneers. Surely there are better choices. I loved the Little House books and Caddie Woodlawn, but they are aimed at younger kids I think.</p>
<p>Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy- about China. Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a coming of age story about a girl who flees Saigon to the US and is written in a lyrical style. My book club loved it. I also second the Bill Bryson books. I also really like Mary Doria Russell’s books. She is a wonderful writer. I even emailed her once and she wrote back to me.</p>
But the DD would like it, too. </p>